the long-awaited Ramadan tent pictures 2

Posted by Mark 21/10/2006 at 13h31

or picture, should I say - all the others seem to have gone MIA.

Pic(366).

The dancer on stage is a whirling dervish. I was under the impression that it was a more solemn, religious, rite: this guy was almost a Vegas performer. Regardless, it was certainly a spectacular act, and the food was amazing - I practically rolled out the door.

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  1. peter wotton 22/10/2006 at 10h51

    The dervishes worshipped by dancing generally under the influence of hashish! Also generally to a state of total exhaustion and ecstacy No wonder they do not need booze! Another subsect of Islam.

  2. Mark 22/10/2006 at 19h49

    You prompted me to go check it out - apparently the dervishes are similar to the Christian monks: vow of poverty, etc. Whirling’s only one method they use. There’s a similarity to the Gnostics, theologically speaking, and the emphasis is on personal connection to divinity: one Sufi scholar said

    “There are three ways of knowing a thing. Take for instance a flame. One can be told of the flame, one can see the flame with his own eyes, and finally one can reach out and be burned by it. In this way, we Sufis seek to be burned by God.”

    There are even suggestions that Sufism predates Islam…

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufi

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